Every major sporting competition needs and has trial games leading up to the season. Soccer sides in Europe have about a month of them. Teams need practice matches to allow new players to jell in with the rest of the group or to experiment with new gameplans and players. Tucky only got his midfield role because Terry threw him in there during a practice game this year to see how he would do.
You wouldn't be able to take the first few rounds of the season seriously if everyone goes in cold. Look what happened to the Aussies at the start of the Ashes tour when they rocked up in England cold. They got done by Bangledesh and it's taken virtually all of the one-day matches to regain their peak form.
I like the idea Roar and X of limiting players to 25 games to protect their bodies from wear. You probably wouldn't even need to enforce it as Clubs would learn to manage their lists in with the fixture just as Soccer clubs do. However I don't reckon the AFL has the depth (ignoring the added expense) of having larger lists. Even with lists of 38 most AFL sides IMO are pretty mediocre. Maybe if the number of Clubs was reduced back to 12 it could work but then all you'd need would be the 22 rounds which is what we have now.
Like WP, I just can't see it working in practice either.
